Chaos sorting does not mean losing cards in a random box. It means you do not pre-sort them by set, colour, or name. Each recorded card receives a unique storage location instead, so your inventory tells you where the physical copy sits.
For a larger sales inventory, that removes an entire step: record the card, store it in the current sequence, and keep the matching position in your data.
What is chaos sorting?
A traditional system sorts cards before storage, often by game, set, and collector number. The shelf is easy to understand, but building and maintaining that order takes time. Every new arrival also needs to be inserted in the right place.
Chaos sorting keeps the order of the recorded stack. Cards might go into positions A-001, A-002, and A-003. When the container is full, the sequence continues at the next location you have named. The box does not need to follow a catalogue order; the reliable link between each card and its location is what matters.
The method depends on three records agreeing:
- the digital card identity
- the saved storage location
- the physical order in the container
If one of them is wrong, picking the card later becomes difficult. Reviewing the batch before export matters more than inventing a clever numbering scheme.
The workflow in TCG Actana
1. Record cards in their physical order
Scan or photograph the stack without changing its sequence during capture. Actana preserves scan order independently of the way the current view is sorted.
Review the printing, language, condition, and finish before moving on. A correct storage location attached to the wrong printing still creates the wrong inventory row.
2. Assign locations during export
Choose the Cardmarket listing (TCG PowerTools) export preset and enable storage locations. You decide:
- the first location, such as
BOX-A-001 - how many cards fit in one container
- the name of the first position in the next container
Actana increments the final number in the location and preserves leading zeroes. Locations already saved on cards remain unchanged on another export. Existing assignments are only replaced when you explicitly choose to renumber them.
3. Store the cards in the same sequence
Put the cards into the container in the assigned order. Split the physical stack only where the next container also begins in Actana. If a required next container has no name, the app leaves the remaining cards without an invented location.
That behaviour is deliberately conservative. A missing location is visible and fixable. A convincing but incorrect position often goes unnoticed until the first order needs to be picked.
4. Import the CSV into TCG PowerTools
Actana writes the storage position to the location column in the TCG PowerTools file. The comment and location columns sit at the end of the export. A stack containing several games produces one file per game, because TCG PowerTools imports a CSV in the context of the game selected there.
Open the matching game in TCG PowerTools, import its file, and check a few representative rows. TCG PowerTools can keep the location on the inventory entry; you still publish and manage the actual listings there.
The complete import process is covered in Create a TCG PowerTools CSV with TCG Actana.
When is chaos sorting useful?
Chaos sorting is most useful when you regularly add larger batches and later pick individual cards for orders. The more often new stock arrives, the more time it can save compared with maintaining a complete set-and-number order.
For a small personal collection, traditional sorting may still be more comfortable. You can find a card without software and browse a binder directly. Chaos sorting assumes that the digital inventory and physical locations remain reliable together.
Common mistakes
- Reordering the stack after scanning. Sequential locations no longer match the physical order.
- Exporting unreviewed matches. The location is correct, but the digital card is not.
- Giving two cards the same location. Actana skips occupied positions; do not edit the CSV into duplicate values.
- Changing containers only in the room. Name the next container in the export too, so the digital location changes with it.
- Letting a spreadsheet rewrite the CSV. Separators, leading zeroes, and headers can change. Import the original file where possible.
In short
Chaos sorting replaces time-consuming pre-sorting with a dependable storage location. TCG Actana preserves scan order, assigns sequential positions when requested, and passes them to TCG PowerTools in the location column. You remain in control of container names, capacity, and the later Cardmarket workflow.